Hello TV Addicts! This is Mike V. of the Lost Addicts Blog among others. This blog covers any TV past, present and future! Look for my recaps/commentary on the latest episodes of Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, archived recaps on Fringe and several others, and weekly open forums on the current episodes of several other favorite shows. Please continue to chime in with your thoughts too!

Pages

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Hello friends and welcome to The Walking Dead post Rick! A lot changes in 6 years. New relationships are forged, new children are born, and them walkers have changed a bit! Not too bad for a first episode in a new era. Still playing it episode by episode on how far the recaps will go. I made a joke during the episode that Magna and Michonne will be best friends 10 seasons from now. Then I almost cried thinking that that might actually happen! My fingers hurt thinking it too! But, we'll take it one week at a time! Let's dive in!

Discussion Points

Kingdom and the Carol/Henry Trip

So Kingdom is in the crapper. Henry is on the cusp of manhood and Uncle Owen (errr I mean King Zeke) needs Luke (errr I mean Henry) to stay on the farm just one more season. Queen Carol tried to loosen the leash Zeke is keeping on their son. And how about that mane Carol is sporting? Long story short, Henry and Carol ran into Jed 6 years after their last encounter. Jed didn't forget how Carol let him go, but still went too far asking for the wedding ring. She was protective of Henry and got out of the conflict, but ended up burning all them ex-Saviours to a crisp. DAMN! Carol! So, they weren't going to Hilltop or maybe they are and were just taking a detour. But they stopped to pick up Daryl from the wilderness. Has he gone on a walkabout since Rick "died"? We shall see.

Just learned on Talking Dead that the actor playing Henry is young henry actor's older brother. And even crazier, their sister played Sophia! That's nuts.

Alexandria

We spent the episode getting to know the new crew and catching up on what's happened with our crew Post Rick. Rosita and Eugene had quite the adventure as well. Here's some things worth discussing/pointing out.

Michonne is struggling to keep up with the optimism she once had. Things have changed and she is now head of security. She finds moments of brightness along the way and did find a toy cowboy/sheriff action figure that she kept passing back and forth with Judith the whole episode. (surface symbolism strikes again!) Guess what? Rick and Michonne had another kid! At first I thought maybe she ended up with Hershel (depending where Maggie went), but Talking Dead confirmed it's theirs.

Magna is an ex-con, uncovered by Michonne and was hiding a few weapons on her person. This led the council to vote their stay down. But we get to know the crew through the episode and it seems like they went through a similar path to get where they are.

Judith and Negan have a bit of a bond. Negan seems a little more upbeat since we last saw him. He just seems to bond well with kids. He gave a good analogy to taking in strays. they all seem gracious, but in the end one was a bad egg. Judith wasn't phased. Negan's attitude seems to lend towards my theory I had that he'll eventually be let loose in a "work together for mutual benefit" type situation eventually. The fact that he has a bond with Judith will probably be part of that subplot.

Gabriel and Rosita are together! I know it's been 6 years bit within 3 episode Gabriel is getting around! Just 3 episodes ago we figured he was a Catholic priest and unable to marry. Crazy stuff. It seems pretty clear that Eugene is harboring a crush for Rosita and was about to come clean in the episode too. They are trying to set up a radio with some range to see what else is going on out there. 6 years has changed a lot. There's no more working cars. All horses and even walker drawn carriages. They have their network and probably don't get far out past that. (That's where Rick's story will probably be different. We'll see the larger world in the films.) Eugene and Rosita escaped their herd by mudding themselves up, but we learned one thing as viewers. The Walkers have evolved and are TALKING! Whaaat? Now I don't know if that's what is meant by the "whisperers" or if this is just the next evolution in walkers and the whisperers are something else. I'm sure our book friends will let me/us know!

Gonna come out and say it. Aaron and Jesus will definitely be an item the next time we see them together. Aaron still is raising that baby who is now a full fledged kiddo!

In the end, Judith gets to Michonne with Dad/Carl talk and Michonne agrees that Rick would be proud of her actions. Michonne volunteers for her and Siddiq to escort the group to Hilltop where maybe "she" will take you in. She won't be Maggie. So who will it be? Maybe Enid? We shall see.

I'm sure there's more to discuss like how did Michonne get that X scar on her back? But, I think I'm gonna leave it at here and we can continue the rest in the comments! And remember this. If you're out there rotting away in the zombie apocalypse you should cover up! You don't want those blue birds stealing your worms! Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week!

11 comments:

MJ
said...

Surely Daryl can't have been in the woods since Rick left ? Hating Carol's hair by the way. I think I knew that young Henry was related to the girl who played Sophia. Michonnes kid threw me off - but they did keep mentioning pregnancy in the last ep. You thought it was Hershel ? LOL Kid did not look asian at all - so figured out immediatley it was Rick & Michonnes. And yeah - why keep JDM around if you are not going to use him ? So sure - Negen will get out - just can't imagine the scenario where they will ever trust him. And ewww - Gabe and Rosita ? I know partners are in short supply but ... I don't see that one. And what do you mean he can't marry ? He said the very opposite that to Anne I thought ? Wasn't he like Episcopal or something ?

No - the walkers are not talking. LOL SPOILER************

Whisperers wear the skin of walkers so the can walk among them. And they probably whister to eachother so as to not tip the walkers off that they aren't one of them.

Ugh Please do not let them put Jesus and Aaron together. And no idea how that X got there either.

Oh come on...the writing has been on the wall with Jesus and Aaron since the first time they mentioned Jesus was into dudes. We knew Aaron's man's days were numbered and that happened!

EWWWWWW on Whisperers! That's an interesting new level of opposition for the crew we follow though! (was going to call them heroes, but are they?? lol)

I was joking about Daryl, but he seems like he's been out there for some time. My wife said he looks like LINK (like Legend of Zelda Link lol) Carol's hair looks absolutely fake. So yeah, it's pretty rough. I think I knew the Henry/Sophia ties as well but forgot and this new level of linkage is nuts.

Before we got a closer look I thought it might be Hershel. Funny you mentioned he didn't look Asian because my wife was convinced he did! lol I was like...uhhhh really??? But I never once went to Rick/Michonne's kid. I thought she may have met some other dude. Just wasn't thinking straight.

I never said they would trust Negen. I just think they'll be forced to use him to help them. I keep comparing to X2 as an example. The X-Men worked with Magneto and crew but no one trusted each other.

Sometimes I wonder how what I'm writing doesn't come across correctly. But I am writing fast and not double checking! I was saying before the episode where he said he is able to marry, most people probably just assumed he was a catholic priest. i.e. So for however many seasons he's been on the show we never thought of Gabriel being with anyone. So it's crazy that after the reveal 3 episodes ago that he is not celibate that he's been with 2 girls. That said...it's also been 6 years but not for the audience! lol

If the Whisperers arc is going to follow anything close to the comics, it will put the Governor and Neegan story lines to shame! As long as it doesn't last as many seasons as the war with the Saviors....talk about a stretched out story!

How about Eugene's new hairstyle? Goodbye mullet!

Had the closed captioning on (as usual with the WD), and I could not hear what was being said without CC being on. In the season preview for that exact scene, it was crystal clear what the Whisperers were saying.

Looking forward to seeing/hearing about what Darryl has been up to all these years. Wonder if he has actually taken a shower or washed his hair at least once in the time jump? :)

Oops - meant to ask - while watching Talking Dead did I understand correctly ? Both those girls have hearing problems ? And cool that the cast has learned sign language now. Though I can't imagine surviving in this world without hearing.

Hi Plumbarius! Yeah....I hear you on stretched out Savior story. It has worn me out to the point where I don't care much anymore! lol But I did enjoy Rick's final arc.

Love Eugene's new 'do and new attitude. He still does "Eugene speak" but he's a lot more confident with the weapons and survival skills.

Makes sense on Closed Captioning. I have it on when I'm watching stuff on the treadmill. But I know it drives my wife crazy so I turn them off for TWD lol (not that I'm taking notes on the treadmill. 2 different scenarios! lol)

Did he take showers BEFORE the time jump?? :) (Daryl)

Gabe - I'm pretty sure he was one of the detectives/cops on The Wire. There was the bald dude and him. looked it up. He was Det. Carver and he hung out with the Herc (bald dude)

Council - Gabriel, Aaron, Michonne, Siddiq, Laura ("transformed" Savior, the one who told Negan about Dwight last season), Nora (introduced in one of the earlier episodes this season, when she came to tell Michonne that Negan wasn't eating), and an unnamed guy that we haven't seen before.

I almost wonder if they just put Rosita and Gabriel together because they plan to transition it to Rosita and Eugene instead, and now that won't seem as weird haha.

Gabriel is also a much different character than he was in the comics. From the time they arrived in Alexandria until wayyy later, he just disappeared in the background and only showed up every once in a while. Then, since he hadn't had a redemption arc in the comic, he had a really short one and then died. It's like Kirkman just acknowledged that the TV character was significantly better and gave up on him in the comic haha.

I think the main theory on Michonne's scar right now is that there was some group during the time jump that gained the trust of the community and then attacked/betrayed them. That would explain why she is so hard on Magna's group, and she even said something to the council like "I remember, and I know all of you do too." Also, what she said while talking to herself when Judith was out in the hallway hints at that even more. She was talking to Rick about how she wants to be able to follow what him and Carl wanted for Alexandria, but how they "weren't there," she gets cut off before saying what for though. I'm sure we'll find out eventually.

This time jump and bringing Judith further toward the front makes me think Gimple actually WAS the one who decided to kill Carl, rather than AMC. They certainly already knew that Andrew was leaving the show, so I don't think paying Chandler more would have been a huge issue for them if they wanted to keep fans. Especially given the huge money deal they made with Norman. I still don't like what they did to Chandler, but I actually do kind of get it now. It's almost like giving the Carl character a reset, since Chandler had grown up so much. Plus some of comic Carl's story would kind of fall flat without Rick there, and it seems like those parts will go to Henry with Carol and/or Ezekiel taking Rick's role. And then the parts of his character that make sense for Judith to take are going to her. So I really am pretty excited to see how they handle those stories going forward. And I always like new stuff as well because I never want to know exactly what's coming.